Individual's status as minor shall not disqualify him
from bone marrow donation.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel

An Act
concerning bone marrow donation and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised
Statutes.

Be It Enactedby the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

1. An individual's status
as a minor shall not disqualify him from bone marrow donation.

2. This act shall take
effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill provides that an
individual's status as a minor shall not disqualify him from bone marrow
donation. This bill, which is similar to legislation enacted in Washington State,
is in response to the policy of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) to
exclude individuals under 18 years of age from registering to be volunteer bone
marrow donors.

The NMDP is a nonprofit
organization that facilitates unrelated bone marrow and blood stem cell
transplants for patients with life-threatening diseases who do not have
matching donors in their families. The NMDP is under contract to the federal
Health Resources and Services Administration for operation of the National Bone
Marrow Donor Registry.